Libraries have seen better days. As the economy suffers and revenues decrease the harsh reality is that goods and services get cut. Libraries have not escaped this and with libraries not being the most vocal or noticeable goods and services they are easy targets. The digital intrusion is gaining traction especially in the academic market and the traditional bookseller is finding it difficult to get a foot hold in this market and it is designed mostly to run from source to end user with very little room for the middleman which is the bookseller. A brief summation of the state of libraries is given. Read more

Just about anyone can quickly set up a presence on portals such as OLX or BidorBuy and start selling online. Establishing an independent e-commerce enabled website has also become much easier due to the development of innovative local online shop solutions such as Shopstar. Booksellers wishing to set up an online store will find out sooner or later that off-the-shelf e-commerce site solutions often don’t address their unique needs properly, and may not even be sufficiently customisable. In this article, I discuss three basic elements that distinguish e-commerce websites from other site types. Read more

This year’s Annual Conference will take place on the 25th to 27th of August at the Sunnyside Park Hotel in Parktown, Johannesburg. By bringing booksellers from around the country together annually to discuss matters of general interest we are able to identify many concerns in the industry and work together towards solutions. Members of the Publishers’ Association of South Africa (PASA) will at the same time come together to discuss matters of the publishing industry. Read More.

Tales of an Icthyologist by Mike Bruton, (Jacana Media)

As I have matured, so have my reading tastes. I have evolved from the magical fairy tales of Enid Blyton I so loved as a child, to the fantasy realms of JRR Tolkien and Terry Pratchett that I lived in as a teenager. In my twenties I devoured fiction titles of all genre’s, especially those with a literary and romantic bent and I revisited Jane Austin and Barbara Trapido with an obsession that was only slightly less compulsive than the Tolkien addiction of before. In my thirties I found love and circumnavigated the world. With these two revelations, I found that only poetry could fill my heart and that non-fiction, with a bent towards the natural history and science sections, scintillated my mind. This wonder that we call earth, and especially her oceans, I discovered, are endlessly intriguing. I want to learn everything I can about it all. And what better way to achieve this than through books. So imagine my glee when Jacana Media asked if I would like to review a recently published book by one of the leading fish biologists in Africa, Mike Bruton.

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